All successful CRM projects have a point person within your organization who assists in training and support issues as well as in coordinating information from the client-side. The role is so crucial to our mutual success that having a designated CRM administrator is a requirement with all projects we take on. This list below outlines the roles and responsibilities of this individual.
What does the term ‘CRM Administrator’ mean? This is the expression we use to define the primary point of contact for all training and support issues. In our projects, we take a train-the-trainer approach which means that we focus on developing your administrator, transferring our knowledge over to this person. This can involve setting up users, building reports, or more. While each of our projects has a defined administrator, the skill sets and abilities of that individual vary greatly. How far they take the role depends on the individual.
What are the responsibilities of this role? This individual will be responsible for understanding the Sage CRM application at a deeper level than the rest of the users at your company. They will be required to help coordinate information and act as the primary point of contact for your user related to Sage CRM. For instance, we often create user guides to accompany go-live. At the bottom of the user guide, it will state. “Any questions should be submitted directly to #your crm administrator#”. Here is a video we use in the course of onboarding new clients that emphasizes this role: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4cB5ouxgh00
What makes a good CRM Administrator? Reliable, approachable, consistent are all adjectives we would use. Be aware that while the ideal candidate is computer savvy, this is not a technical role, and generally it is better if the person is not from your IT team but holds an inhouse administrative role.
How much time is required for this role? This depends on the size and complexity of the project, but generally, this role will require 8 hours a week for the first couple of months and then less as time goes on.
In a project, how many CRM administrators are there? Normally a couple of people within your organization will have administrative rights within the Sage CRM application but we focus on developing only a single person as your defined administrator. The logic being, if too many people have this role, then really nobody ever takes ownership of this role.
Why is this an excellent opportunity for the right person? Learning how Sage CRM works is part of the job, but a bigger part is understanding how your organization works. This can include the needs of specific users (example reports) and how different persons and/or departments interact with one another. Understanding how your organization’s information management system works can be a very empowering role.
What makes for a great CRM administrator? Great administrators are organized and thoughtful and want the job. They verify any issues submitted by staff members before submitting any issues on to our team and (bonus) always submit pictures and/or videos to support the questions or issues they are reporting to us. At My CRM Manager, we use screen capture tools from TechSmith called Jing and Snagit. Jing is free and Snagit is approximately $50.
Signs of an ineffective administrator: Poor administrators simply forward issues to us without first attempting to understand and verify the issue. They rarely if ever submit images and are generally reluctant to do the job.
What happens if the defined CRM administrator leaves? If your designated point person is no longer available for this role, we need you to reassign a new one. Any efforts we have made in transferring our knowledge to your point person will have to be re-applied. If this happens during the initial deployment of Sage CRM, it can have a detrimental effect on timelines.
What if we do not currently have a person in place to hold this role? Our recommendation is that you do not proceed with your CRM initiative until you have such a person in place.
